The DeBruce Fly Fishing Club property is rich in history. At the junctions of Mongaup Creek and the Willowemoc (now known to us as our Junction Pool) George LaBranche, author of “The Dry Fly and Fast Water,” cast his first dry fly in 1904.

Prior to Mr. LaBranche’s historic cast, around 1875 and as shown in the Beer’s Atlas in the Clerk’s office of Sullivan County, the property was the home of the Hammond and Sons DeBruce Tannery, which built the original pond as a water supply for their operations. The foundation of the structure can still be located on the property, and the farm road was still the main road that that time. Around 1900, after the tannery’s demise, the Willowemoc Creek Hatchery was built on the property. A brochure created by the hatchery describes the need to supplement the natural fish stocks, which were declining due to pollution resulting from manufacturing and increased fishing pressure resulting from population growth.

The hatchery recommended stocking three to four inch fish each Fall during spawning season so larger fish would not be as likely to “bother” them. By Spring, according to the hatchery, anglers would be provided with “good fishing”, and if the stockings were repeated each Fall, “a steady supply of fine fishing would be obtainable”. Pictures of building structures, rearing ponds and tanks circa 1910 demonstrate that the hatchery was indeed very active; the hatchery was subsequently moved to what is now the DeBruce Conservation Camp, and a new state hatchery was built in its current location in the 1960s. During the early 1900s the property was home to Ward’s DeBruce Club Inn, a popular resort that featured tennis courts and a golf course – the first in Sullivan County. The Inn suffered a loss of business in the 1930s and was sold to the Kochers. Its water ultimately became available for lease when Mr. Kocher closed the Inn. A group of Rockland County businessmen approached Mr. Kocher, and the parties reached an agreement on the lease of the water and the clubhouse. This agreement led to formation of the DeBruce Fly Fishing Club in 1959.

The main catalysts behind the formation of the club were Dick Sterns, Gil McCormack, Bert Leitner, and Homer Stoughton. Other original members included J. Fred Geist, Dr. Albert Munson, Fred Bliss, Ed Gallik, Fred Palmer, Dick Salmon, Walter Taradash, Walter A. Kocher, Tom Dexter, Van Tippett, Howard Walden, and John Perry. The 1959 annual dues were $50, but each member also paid daily fishing fees.

The original club pool water extended from the wire above Campsite Pool to the tail-end of Clancy Pool. The water below Anvil Rock Pool was only owned on one bank. Most early members fished the upper stretches of water above Big Rock Pool, with Twin Rock Pool being particularly popular. The water below Big Rock Pool, including Chicken Run, Ward’s Pool, and Clancy Pool, was rarely fished. At the time the club was formed the Abutment Pool did not exist, since the bridge was still standing. The field side of what is now the Abutment Pool was said to have held huge Brown Trout at that time.

In 1968 the club began leasing water on the property owned by Sam Fratarelli, including the stretch from Anvil Rock to the lower boundary of the present-day club water; this gave the club control of both banks of the Anvil Rock Pool. Mr. Fratarelli later became the club’s “stream watcher.” Also in 1968, the club leased a small stretch of water owned by the Krieger family below the DeBruce Country Inn; club members lightly fished this area until 1972, when the lease was discontinued.

In the 1800s there was a Hewitt-style plank dam across the Willowemoc, on the lower portion of Rhododendron Run that was built to feed water through a sluiceway and create the ponds. At that time the run was wide, stretching from near the sluiceway to the opposite bank, with six to eight foot water depths above the dam. There was a beautiful, deep plunge pool immediately below the dam, which was said to have held enormous trout, and was a favorite of longtime member and club president Gil McCormack. In 1969, following major repair work on the dam, the directional flows of the Willowemoc were drastically changed when a fierce hurricane and ensuing flood broke through the bank near Rhododendron Run towards the far bank, thereby channeling flows around the dam, leaving it high and dry. The club approached the Department of Environmental Conservation about installing a diverter to return the path of the water to its original state, but the request was refused. As a result, the water still runs in that channel today, and members currently cast to trout in Rhododendron Run from the close bank, which was at one time on the far side of the creek-bed.

Only remnants of the original dam, since repaired and supplemented by boulders, exist today. Now that the Willowemoc follows a different path, the dam is fed by Frog Hollow Brook (as supplemented by water diverted from Mongaup Creek) into the sluiceway that still performs the same function. A subsequent hurricane in the 1970s also caused a major flood in nearby Livingston Manor and collapsed the bank on the field side of the pond, causing a major washout and killing many trout.

The club today, as always, brings joy to over 50 avid anglers seeking the peace, beauty, and superb fishing that the Willowemoc provides. Over the course of time, the membership roster has included respected fishing writers Sparse Grey Hackle, Dick Salmon, Nick Lyons, Howard Walden, and Ed Zern, as well as renown wildlife artist Milton Weiler. The club owes a great debt to past presidents, James Lawrence, Jake Amann, Walter Taradash, Mike Foreman, Malcom Mason, John Copenhaver, Mayo Harvey, and George Nielsen, without whom the club would not exist today. These gentlemen, and all members past and present make the club what it is today: more than a place to fish for trout – it is a state of mind.

From excerpts of a club history written by James “Bucky” Sterns, with additions
and adaptations by Andrew Tow, with the assistance of Walter W. Kocher.